The Sculptors of Film Songs (14): Four Shades of the Dusk of the Series

The concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians by guest authors, Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), wishing everyone Eid Mubarak

(As we celebrate Eid, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav mark the happy occasion with their concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. In the thirteen earlier articles, eleven focussed on individual talented artistes, such as Anthony Gonsalves, Van Shipley, Enoch Daniels etc, and two were devoted to families whose more than one generation comprising several artistes made an impact – The Lords and Ramprasad Sharma & Sons.  

The concluding article brings the curtain down on the people who remained behind the curtain anyway. This also marks the end of the way music was made – a metaphorical dusk of an era. The authors discuss four different artistes who were active during the dusk. On behalf of the readers I convey our heartfelt gratitude to Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful series and a befitting concluding article. – AK)

Arrangers and musicians have been the unsung heroes, who gave shape to the music in films with their imaginative art and creative craft. Some of these arrangers and musicians had their work documented, howsoever sketchy it was. However, there are many more who remained unsung within the tribe of ‘unsung heroes’. We conclude our present series with four such unsung among unsung musicians whose work has mainly trickled in through the public programmes they have participated in, even though each one was a master of his own instrument(s), and has enriched the Hindi film music by expanding the range of these instruments.

Bhanu Gupta

The world of science is replete with cases where some great inventions happened from inadvertent errors. One most famous example is that of Penicillin. Sir Alexander Fleming was working on a cure for Pneumonia, rampant during WWI. In 1928, Dr Fleming observed that a particular type of mould growing on a Petri-dish of Staphylococcus bacteria seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. We know that accidental discovery of the mould as almost cure-all, Penicillin.

However, in the days of full-scale live recording, when one small error would have resulted in a re-take, it would be impossible to imagine that in the world of film music such an error would turn into a great piece. But, in the case of Bhanu Gupta, such an error did create history.

The rehearsal for Chingari koi bhadke (Amar Prem) was in full session. Bhanu Gupta was to play a very specific chord (combination of several notes to be played together) on guitar at the very beginning of the prelude. In one such practice iteration, Bhanu Gupta committed an error. A perfectionist that he was, Bhanu Gupta was totally abashed. RD also noticed that error. The recording room went totally silent. After a while RD broke the silence and said that Bhanu (Gupta) will now play that incorrect chord only in the song. In fact, on several occasions later on, he used to say that Bhanu had made the song so unique by that ‘creative’ error.

Here is the clip that explains now that famous ‘million-dollar mistake’.

Bhanu Gupta’s first brush with musical instrument was also, an error, an error of luck. Because of his working knowledge of Japanese language, during WWII, Bhanu Gupta got the job of translator at a monthly wage of Rs. 400/- to help interaction between Japanese soldiers and the Burmese local traders. As a chance happening Bhanu saw a British soldier playing harmonica (the mouth organ) during his  visits to the Rangoon Port. He started learning the instrument and mastered it in such a short time that the British soldier gave that harmonica as a gift to Bhanu when his ship sailed out from Rangoon.

Bhanu Gupta’s growing expertise of harmonica led him to play the instrument in the clubs of Calcutta. Once when he came to Bombay (in 1958), C Ramchandra noticed him and took him in his orchestra for his next film, Paigham (1959). Unfortunately, no details of his contributions in the songs or background music are available. During one of these recordings, he came across an unclaimed guitar, lying in shambles somewhere in the studio. Bhanu Gupta repaired it, and in due course went on to master guitar too.

Here are some very well-known pieces that Bhanu Gupta has played on harmonica and guitar.

Rahi manwa dukh ki chinta kyun satati hai  – Dosti (1964) – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal

There are many conflicting views on who has in fact played the harmonica in this song. In the clip here, Bhanu Gupta himself confirms that it was he who played these pieces.

This is the original song.

Another very touching piece of harmonica which everyone would recall is from Sholay (1974).

R D Burman himself was an ace harmonica player, and had conceived and played several memorable pieces for S D Burman. Here he has handed over the harmonica to Bhanu Gupta.

Bhanu Gupta’s mastery over guitar can also be heard in the title music of Sholay.

Here Bhanu Gupta is recreating that guitar play.

We will take up one more song that has Bhanu Gupta’s highly imaginative guitar play.

Dekhiye sahibo…. woh koi aur thi ye koi aur hai – Teesari Manzil (1966) -Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: R D Burman

How wonderfully the subdued soft melody is created in prelude by the guitar, and then in total contrast, high-octave guitar play resonates in the first and third interludes!

Homi Mullan

Homi Mullan (1940 – 2015) started as assistant to V Balsara in Calcutta. Here he used to play the piano, accordion and other instruments for Balsara.

Ami cheye cheye dekhi – Deya Naya (1963) – Shyamal Mitra – Lyrics: Gauriprasanna Mazumdar – Music: Shyamal Mitra

A very young person, with a charming moustache, Homi Mullan is actually seen playing accordion @ 01.6 to 0.21 and 1.06 to 1.12.

Homi Mullan is playing the piano in a later day public program. If one watches closely, it can be noted that unlike most piano players, Homi Mullan moves his fingers perpendicular to keys rather than parallel to the key board as we normally see most of the piano players.

However, once he shifted to Bombay, he graduated to becoming the core team of percussionists, under the guidance of Cawas Lord, for S D Burman. Since S D Burman always loved to experiment with different music instruments, Homi Mullan went on to master what is known as non-traditional, support percussion instruments in S D Burman orchestra team.

O panchhi pyare sanjh sakaare bole tu kaun si boli – Bandini (1961) – Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Shailendra – Music: S D Burman

The song plays the sound of the grains being winnowed by the jail inmates.

Homi Mullan explains how that winnowing sound was generated.

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxa777AMmHAI1zRopmUZ1udMMUDVX1a3Cq?feature=shared

Mose chhal kiye jaye hai hai saiyan beimaan – Guide (1965) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Shailendra – Music: S D Burman

Playing any instrument for S D (and for that matter even for R D, too) was highly challenging. Here ghunghr00 had to be played at the fast pace of Waheeda Rehman’s dance steps.

Homi Mullan has played all the ghunghroo pieces in the background scores too in the film.

In a career spanning over 40 years, Homi Mullan has played a number of instruments like duggi, bongo, congo, maadal, castanets, sticks, glockenspiel, triangle, xylophone, vibraphone etc.

In this clip he explains this whole range of instruments and also gives breath-taking demonstration of these instruments:

YouTube has many other clips depicting art and imagination of Homi Mullan’s skills in using ‘the minor’ percussion instruments.

Kishore Sodha

Trumpet is perhaps the most known as wind-blown bass instrument in the bands at marriage or ceremonial parades. Many trumpet players of these bands have successfully experimented this western instrument for playing Indian classical raags.

https://youtu.be/oVkD6VVPCkw?si=3EFw8SkYRm5ChUAB

Trumpet has found a respectable place in the orchestrations of Hindi film songs from the times when western instruments were introduced in the late 1940s. Ramprasad Sharma, Antonio Vaz (Chic Chocolate), Manohari Singh, Brass Gonzalves etc. are some of the illustrious trumpeters in Hindi film music world. Kishor Sodha is the last among the line of great trumpeters.

Kishore is the youngest of three ‘Sodha’ brothers who have maintained the tradition of playing different instruments in the next generation. The father Rai Singh Sodha was a bandmaster of 150 payer band during the 40s. It was but natural that the three sons, Rajinder, Raj and Kishore too were attracted towards playing music instruments. Rajinder Sodha accompanied the ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas regularly. He acquired expertise over swarlin (a. k. a, BelaBahar), a fusion of violin and sarangi, developed by his father. Raj Sodha made his name as a saxophone player.

Kishore Sodha started playing trumpet at the age of eighteen, in the stage shows of Kishore Kumar. Soon he was noticed by R D Burman, who invited him to play trumpet for the title track of Shalimar (1978) – which was arranged by Kersi Lord. The trumpet chords can be heard @ 0.30 to 0.35, then more as counter melody type support @ 0.57 till 1.16 and as a lead @ 1.43 till 2.27.

Around the same time, Kalyanji-Anandji also invited him to play trumpet in the title song of Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978).

Rote hue aate hain sab – Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978) – Kishore Kumar – Lyrics: – Anjaan – Music: Kalyanji-Anandji

Trumpet comes in as lead instrument @ 1.13 to 1.22, 1.31 to 1.35.

O maria o maria – Sagar (1985) – S P Balasubramanian, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Javed Akhtar – Music: R D Burman

Kamal Hassan plays the trumpet on the screen.

In this clip of a public programme, we can see Rajinder Sinh Sodha playing violin and Kishore Sodha playing trumpet.

https://youtu.be/yt9223b_FW8?si=dYQ-N7M_53HAirux

In another programme, Raj Sodha plays the saxophone and Kishore Sodha, the trumpet while recreating Shankar-Jaikishan melodies.

With the advent of electronic instruments and digital arrangements, Kishore Sodha also  gracefully retired from the film music world. But he has not cut off his relation with the world of music. He runs an institution named as Music Movers, and keeps organising live stage shows.

Ranjit Gazmer ‘Kancha’

Manohari Singh brought along a young Nepalese with him for a composing session for Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971). The producer of the film, Dev Anand, too was present at that session.  The young man was carrying a Nepalese percussion instrument (Maadal) with him. R D Burman invited the young man to present some Nepalese tune. The young man presented a tune he had composed a few days back by using that Maadal as percussion support. R D then told him to come back after two days. When he went to the recording studio on appointed day, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the song being rehearsed was based on his tune and had adopted the first words “Kancha re kancha” too in the mukhada. He, of course, was to play his maadal in that song.

Kanchi re kanchi na ja dil tod ke – Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971) – Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Anand Bakshi – Music: R D Burman

That young man was Ranjit Gazmer. R D Burman fondly nicknamed him as ‘Kancha’. The beginning of that relationship remained a strong bond till R D Burman passed away in 1994.

Ranjit Gazmer was born in 1941 in a Nepalese family, engaged in the traditional family business of trading of ornaments. He lost his father in the childhood and lost his mother during his adolescence. Right from his early days, Ranjit was inclined towards music. As he started learning playing different instruments, he gravitated more towards percussion instruments. He also used to compose tunes for the poems that he liked during his studies. Since there was no facility for recordings in Darjeeling those days, he would visit HMV offices at Calcutta to record his tunes. Here he was noticed by George Banks, father of well-known instrumentalist, Louis Banks. George Banks started giving Ranjit work at various bands he used to conduct at Calcutta hotels. One thing leads to other; Ranjit came into contact with Manohari Singh here, which was to lead him to that fateful recoding session for Hare Rama Hare Krishna.

Because of his relationship with R D Burman, Ranjit Gazmer also used to attend recording sessions of S D Burman. When S D Burman was composing songs for Dev Ananad’s Yeh Gulistan Hamara (1972) S D Burman invited Ranjit to present him some Nepalese tune for a song for this film. We, now, know that tune as

Tushima O Tushima – Yeh Gulistan Hamara (1972) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics:   – Music: S D Burman

In SDB/RDB style of percussion arrangements, Maadal is usually played as support percussion instrument

https://youtu.be/tx1yp_FiBgU?si=ipzdFiH3zCrxOW1F

Even as Ranjit Gazmer could play instruments like drum, tabla, dholak, vibraphone, metallophone, Xylophone, violin, harmonium, organ with great expertise, his name remained associated with maadal. On his part, Ranjit Gazmer too continued experimenting with maadal. One such experiment can be seen as different maadals set to different tonal settings being played in unison, known as maadal tarang, to create a harmony.

That song is:

Tere bina jiya jaaye na – Ghar (1978) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Gulzar – Music: R D Burman

https://youtu.be/-W3hN8dgAy4?si=vrXks7ACrvDQII9U

Lekar hum diwana dil – Yaadon Ki Barat (1973) – Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics; Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: R D Burman

In one of the interviews, Ranjit Gazmer himself has stated that this song was recorded entirely without maadal. But then, RD realised that something was still amiss. It was then that he added distinctive maadal pieces at the end of interludes to give a kick-start to the antaraas.

https://youtu.be/ziNjRhfhNr8?si=ig4TGFx6SpuABN2b

Dil mein jo baatein hain, aaj chalo hum kah dein – Joshila (1973) – Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, chorus – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhiyanvi – Music: R D Burman

The Purbevli (big-sized) and the Paschim (small-sized) Maadal are used together to create a special effect.

https://youtu.be/lGvRVChdb5c?si=btTqjYfscCY4J87f

Hum dono do premi duniya chhod chale – Ajanabee (1974) – Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Anand Bakshi – Music: R D Burman

Apart from the distinct Nepalese touch, this song has very unique story.

Cine musicians were on strike when this song was scheduled for the recording. However, Ranjit Gazmer and Bhupinder agreed to complete the recording without other orchestra, which was added later on. Both these close professional friends of RD had to bear the ire of musicians colleagues from a very long time for this ‘betrayal’.

https://youtu.be/vhZLopg5kP0?si=DUFEWvvabmPh3i4B

Ranjit Gazmer also played maadal for other music directors like, Rajesh Roshan, Bappi Lahiri, Ravindra Jain

Husn pahadon ka kya kehna – Ram Teri Ganaga Mail (1985) – Lata Mangeshkar – Suresh Wadkar – Lyrics / Music: Ravindra Jain

https://youtu.be/HDYxA97rX84?si=jxZGvwZs9qvWsxbM

Ranjit Gazmer has composed music for Nepalese films like ‘Darpan Chhaya‘, ‘Saino‘ ‘Samajhana‘, ‘Kusumey Rumal‘ etc..

Jhajhalko liyera ayecha sawan – Bansuri (1985) – Asha Bhosle – Music; Ranjit Gazmer

Ranjit Gazmer seems to have created his own style of composition. Here the song is almost without (hard) percussion support.

https://youtu.be/ywD8ZaejNq0?si=O5BCGyhk27fKXZQH

Ranjit Gazmer also has composed music for a DD Metro TV serial Ajanabi.

https://youtu.be/iXosmnvL2js?si=LCRuJ7CA8g7L0Wah

Like all musicians and arrangers, Ranjit Gazmer ruminates those days when creating the music for films was an intricate art. As he says: The body may look slim, trim and modern from the outside in these days of programmed music, but that inner voice of live orchestration recordings is lost.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimers:
1. I most sincerely acknowledge the encouragement and support extended by AKji and SoY family for this series. In order to present the work of the arrangers and musicians in the correct perspective, I might have at places relied on information that may not have been fully authentic. I am grateful to SoY family for graciously overlooking my such transgressions.
2. The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
3.The photographs are taken from the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.